The Ancient Bronze Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments, of Great Britain and Ireland.Evans, John
History
The Ancient Bronze Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments, of Great Britain and Ireland.
Evans, John
Bronze age -- Great Britain; Bronze age -- Ireland; Great Britain -- Antiquities
Palstaves of this type have been obtained from the following
localities: from South Cerney,[266] near Cirencester; from the mouth
of the River Wandle,[267] in Surrey, now preserved in the British
Museum; from Bucks[268] (6 inches long), also in the British Museum;
from Chichester;[269] Astley,[270] Worcestershire; Llangwyllog,[271]
Anglesea (6¼ inches); from near Bognor,[272] Billingshurst,[273]
and Iford,[274] Sussex; and Lovehayne,[275] near Broad Down, Devon
(5⅛ inches); where several appear to have been found in the rough
state in which they came from the mould. I have an example from the
neighbourhood of Penzance.
One (6¾ inches) found near Ashford, Kent, is in the Mayer Collection
at Liverpool. One of the same kind was found with a hammer, a tanged
chisel, broken spear-heads, and rough metal, in Burgesses’ Meadow,
Oxford. The hoard is now in the Ashmolean Museum. In three palstaves
of this kind found in the parishes of Llandrinio,[276] and Caersws,
Montgomeryshire, and St. Harmon, Radnorshire, there is a hole in
the metal between the two recesses for the handle just above the
stop-ridge. It has been thought by Professor Westwood that these
holes were connected with the manner of fastening the instrument to
its haft, but it appears to me much more likely that they arise from
accidental defects in casting. This is certainly the case with two
specimens of my own, which also have holes through the same part of
the instrument, where the metal is thin.
One (5 inches), rather narrower in the blade than the figure, found
near Longford, Ireland, is in the Blackmore Museum at Salisbury.
Palstaves with a central and two lateral ribs on the blade are of not
unfrequent occurrence on the Continent, especially in the North of
France. I have examples much like the figure found in the hoard at
Bernay, near Abbeville. Others, much narrower in the blade, have been
discovered in large numbers in the North-west of France.
German examples have been figured by Lindenschmit.[277]
In another variety the blade is nearly flat, having only a broad
protuberant ridge extending along the upper part to the stop. A
palstave of this kind, found near Winfrith, Weymouth, Dorset, is shown
in Fig. 64. In this, the metal between the side flanges tapers towards
the top of the instrument, instead of being of nearly even thickness,
as is often the case, or thinnest near the stop-ridge, as it is
sometimes. Close to the stop the metal is ½ inch thick, while at the
top of the recess it comes to a nearly sharp edge. A palstave of this
character was found on Kingston Hill,[278] Surrey, near Cæsar’s Camp.
[Illustration: Fig. 64.—Weymouth. ½]
[Illustration: Fig. 65.—Burwell Fen. ½]
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